India by far has the largest number of people who defecate outdoors. As a result, children are exposed to bacteria that often sickens them, leaving them unable to attain and maintain a healthy body weight no matter how much food they eat.
“These children’s bodies divert energy and nutrients away from growth and brain development to prioritize infection-fighting survival,” said Jean Humphrey, a professor of human nutrition at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “When this happens during the first two years of life, children become stunted. What’s particularly disturbing is that the lost height and intelligence are permanent.”Unicef, the World Health Organization and the World Bank released a report on child malnutrition two years ago that focused entirely on lack of food. Sanitation was not looked at. Now Unicef officials and many other major charitable organizations believe that poor sanitation may cause up to half of the world's stunting problems.
“Our realization about the connection between stunting and sanitation is just emerging,” said Sue Coates, chief of water, sanitation and hygiene at Unicef India. “At this point, it is still just an hypothesis, but it is an incredibly exciting and important one because of its potential impact.”Follow below the orange hairpiece for more detail.